


Reach out to you

by taotrooper



Category: Akatsuki no Yona | Yona of the Dawn
Genre: Brotherhood, Gen, Introspection, Loneliness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-15
Updated: 2017-04-15
Packaged: 2018-10-19 08:14:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10635888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taotrooper/pseuds/taotrooper
Summary: Since he was a child, Kija has been intrigued by the bond between the Four Dragons and has tried to make his presence known to them.





	

“If destiny sees it fit,” the stranger had said, “we shall meet again.” And Kija wanted to, but he never seemed to return. What a strange young man he had been! While the memories of that day were eventually long forgotten, his visit had shaken the boy’s thoughts for a little while, and the repercussions of those musings still haunted him for years to come like ripples in a peaceful pond.

Days later, under the trees in bloom in front of his mansion, he held a controlled meeting with his father. It would be his last lesson and one of the very last times father and son shared a conversation. After all, the young Hakuryuu had just turned four and the man had passed on almost everything his son needed to know to fulfill his role. It was up to Kija to train and cultivate his strength from then on.

“Before starting, Granny has urged me to remind you not to leave to the bathing waters with no supervision, at least until…” His face looked pained. “Until you receive your full legacy.”

Until the boy had his full powers. Until the man died. The previous Lord Hakuryuu already looked too close to the grave, with a skin paler than it already was and deeper wrinkles forming under his eyes. The beauty of spring only made him look more gaunt. Kija couldn’t help but notice that his father was hiding his sacred claws inside his robes’ pocket.

“I will be fine, Father,” he smiled. “Like I told Granny, it was just a harmless, lost traveler. He was really friendly and knew nothing about the village.”

“Are you certain about that?”

Kija bit his lips under his father’s gaze. Even if indeed that guy didn’t know before, he had seen his dragon hand and must have heard the villagers’ calls for Lord Hakuryuu. Everyone was aware that most of the outside world regarded the Four Dragons as a myth, but if the intruder ever talked too much they could still be attacked by someone who believed him. That had been the discussions he had heard between the elder and the other adults. He disagreed, but not even his authority could ease their worries.

He hadn’t told Granny about their secret conversation. Perhaps the man did know about them, despite not ever saying the word ‘dragon’. Kija had the feeling he knew a lot about many things. He talked like no one he knew: in a casual tone, perhaps even impolite compared to the way people directed at him in the village, yet his words were deep and full of hidden meaning. Kija rather liked that informality. He seemed wise, hopeful, and kind. A man like that, no matter who he was, wouldn’t rat them out or try to harm them.

Besides, there was that suspicion…

“Father, did you feel a presence that day by any chance?” Kija grasped the end of his tunic, anxious. “Because I think… I believe that man could be Ouryuu.”

“Ouryuu…?” The predecessor coughed and covered his mouth with his left hand. “I cannot imagine that, no. If that man was Ouryuu, he would know where he was. He’d have stayed and manifested himself to his brother dragon line. He wouldn’t shame his village by coming and going without a shred of manners! No, son. Yellow hair is quite common outside of Hakuryuu Village, so don’t be confused.”

“But… You didn’t feel anything? Oh, I wonder where Ouryuu was that morning…”

“I was… under the weather that day with a fever and I seldom reach to the other dragons, so I can’t say.”

“…Reach? Wait, you can reach the others?!” Kija’s big blue eyes widened and sparkled.

“That’s today’s lesson, as a matter of fact.”

“Yes! Let’s talk to them! I have so much I want to ask!”

Kija’s father grinned softly; an attempt to contain a chuckle caused him to cough again. His left hand raised a bit toward Kija’s head but stopped in midair to then turn into an extended palm. Both father and son glanced at the two watchmen standing close to them. Kija wished to believe that gesture was a desire to indulge in tender physical contact. The villagers never forgot or forgave and they wouldn’t assume so, however.

“We can’t communicate with any of them, Lord Hakuryuu. If that was so easy, we would know if your mysterious intruder was truly a dragon. But no, it’s not telepathy.”

Kija’s enthusiasm went downwards like a kite when the wind slows down. His father’s mood had returned to stoic.

“However, it’s the most sacred of bonds. I will teach you how to feel them and check how they are. It is much better than nothing, don’t you agree?”

It was. Kija nodded and paid attention. Years later, when his king returned, he would be thankful for that knowledge.

 

* * *

 

Over his life, Kija reached out frequently. It was hard to pinpoint them sometimes, and at first he thought it was because of his own incompetence. Yellow, the light he yearned to connect to at first, would be all over the place and occasionally vanish for hours or even days from his mind. His father told him during the lesson to pay no heed to Ouryuu, that said bloodline was unreliable and filled with uneasiness through the generations, and the other two lights were more steady to track down. Still, Kija liked the challenge.

After a while, caused in no less amount by the insistence of his father and granny that it couldn’t be Ouryuu, the memory of the kind traveler who stargazed with Kija got blurry. When an army failed to appear and the alarm lowered, everyone else forgot about the incident and stopped talking about it. Late into his childhood, he began to assume it had all been just a dream. He wasn’t sure why he had always insisted to bond with Ouryuu harder than the other two, when Ryokuryuu was just as slippery. Because he felt warm whenever he could get ahold of him, perhaps?

Not that far after his father died, he felt a rather peculiar dizziness coming from Seiryuu’s end during dinner. The boy went to bed feeling empty and disturbed by some reason. Had his blue brother fallen sick? By the end of the week, he could feel the blue light moving away from its usual spot towards the east. Something must have happened. Kija was even tempted to leave Hakuryuu Village and offer his help, but Granny stopped him on track.

“Lord Hakuryuu, the other Dragon Warriors moving like that is normal,” she smiled as she sipped her tea. “Over the centuries, the other villages have changed location several times. They never seem to be as rock steady and well hidden as ours, may the gods bless them. If you ask me, I figure that Lord Seiryuu perhaps got into a fight with intruders and now they’re all relocating to a new area.”

“You seem so certain, Granny.”

“I am certain as that happened to Ryokuryuu three generations before you. The first Lord Hakuryuu I attended to could feel it as it went on. Just wait a few days before planning something hasty, my Lord.”

And indeed, the blue presence stopped moving and remained healthy and strong. They had settled in, like Granny predicted.

It wasn’t a surprise, then, when years later Ryokuryuu started to move as well. Just like Seiryuu before him, he remained, yet in opposite direction to the west. The only thing Kija got wrong was assuming the village had gone with him, when Jae-ha had actually escaped and established in Awa.

He never felt Ouryuu in the same direction for long. Granny’s theory was that Ouryuu Village were nomads. As that explained part of it, Kija gladly accepted the explanation, not even suspecting that Ouryuu never had a village at all.

 

* * *

 

“That looks fun! May I please play with you guys?”

“Ah… Lord Hakuryuu… we, um…”

The boys and girls looked at the balloons, then at Kija’s hand, then back at the balloons. Kija was a clever kid, so he didn’t need to take the hint. He had put them in a tight spot once again. They did like and respect him so they couldn’t just refuse, but balloons and sharp claws didn’t get along.

“Oh!” Kija put his right hand over his chest, in a gesture of peace to the balloons. “My apologies, I just remembered I have homework to do. Let’s play another day, if that’s alright.”

“Y-Yes! S-Sorry to hear that you’re busy.”

“Work hard, Lord Hakuryuu! You can do it!”

“Let’s play hide-and-seek next time, Lord Hakuryuu!”

“That sounds great. Have fun, everyone.”

Kija kicked a pebble on the way to his mansion. It was not like the children his age didn’t love him. If anything, a little part of him even wished they liked him less, that they weren’t so agreeable all the time. But they had human games that were not always adequate for the Hakuryuu’s blessings, and it wasn’t fair for them to invite himself in. It wasn’t fair to pop their balloons or punch their balls or break their wooden swords… or their bones, by accident.

And when it was games where they all stood in equal grounds, they usually let him win. As competitive as Kija could get, winning all the time was tiresome. There was no way for challenge or improvement.

In times like those, he wished he could meet the other dragons in person. He imagined he could play and spar with them with no fear of getting them badly hurt! Not all of them should be adults, he figured. He’d be glad to have a fellow kid brother, but he wasn’t picky and wouldn’t mind a big brother or an uncle figure. A dragon younger than him was fine as well, as he always wanted a little brother. No matter the ages, he just wished a family of people like him.

And so, in their physical absence, he reached for their spirits.

 

* * *

 

Seiryuu was the closest presence, the steadiest, but he never reached back. Perhaps he was shy? Maybe he wasn’t that good at feeling presences? The aloofness did sting Kija, but not as much as Ryokuryuu’s. The green dragon would sever any attempt of communication. He could sometimes feel vague dizziness coming from him, and yet it didn’t hurt Kija as much as the rejection.

Once he met Shin-ah and Jae-ha, everything was clear. The former was more complicated than shyness: not knowing what the presences even were. And Kija felt relief in the middle of his sorrow over his youngest brother’s life in ignorance and contempt. The latter was as a matter of fact dismissing him, but as an adult Kija understood his reasons and was fine with it. What mattered was that they became his partners, and they loved each other beyond the old blood pact.

Ouryuu… He didn’t always reply, as elusive as the sun. Yet when he did, Kija could feel the distant and distinct wave of warmth and care, just like a patch of sunshine in a cloudy day. And like the yellow light in the sky, it left as it came. It gave him hope that one day, perhaps, he wouldn’t feel so lonely. He was not entirely lonely as long as one of his brothers smiled upon him and sent him the closest thing to a hug.

When he met Zeno again, the traveler long forgotten, both the elusiveness and warmth still made sense. And as the three lights, now four, stood in the same place, Kija’s heart was so overwhelmed and comforted his eyes shed tears. Regardless of how they were unlike his expectations, there they were. All the reaching, all the contact, it had worked. He had brought them to her. He had brought them to himself.

Shin-ah and Jae-ha couldn’t understand, but between his tears he could swear he saw the sweetest smile crossing Zeno’s lips. Just a blur, but he hoped it meant the warmth did come from this Ouryuu and he felt the same.


End file.
